Ranking Portland’s best new restaurants is never a simple proposition. There’s no website with a handy Tastiness Above Replacement stat to help sort the dozens of new places that open each year. You actually have to do the work, visit each restaurant in person, then quite literally trust your gut.
But 2023 presented its own complications. Perhaps more than any point since the pop-up proliferation of 2014, this year had us questioning what exactly defines a restaurant.
While searching the city for interesting places to eat, some of the most thrilling cooking we found came from “residencies,” where talented chefs thought up a name, set up an Instagram page then took over an existing kitchen, typically inside a bar, to serve food a few days a week, with no expectation that the situationship was permanent.
Add to that a few high-profile duds, plus a handful of contenders that didn’t immediately knock our bibs off, and 2023 began to feel like a year where the bigger the swing, the bigger the miss.
Historically, we’ve only considered brick-and-mortar restaurants open at least four days a week in the same location for this guide, so as to separate restaurants, as we thought we knew them, from carts or pop-ups. This year, that wasn’t possible. Trying to rank the best places we ate in 2023 meant comparing Astrals to L’Oranges: chef residencies open a few days a week versus more traditional restaurants with larger menus, longer hours and fixed addresses (though each with undeniably delicious food).
We still have deep respect for the restaurants making a go of it with full service five or even six days a week. But if we found a chef serving tasty food from a fixed location, even just a few days a week, we chose to call it a restaurant this year.
To narrow down this list, we checked out more than 50 restaurants (and residencies) that opened since we wrapped up eating for our 2022 best new restaurants guide last fall. Then we revisited our favorites to come up with a final ranking, making our picks based on the quality of the food, drinks, atmosphere and — as always — paying for our meals along the way.
We hope you enjoy the fruits of that search — not just a L’Orange, but a Plumb as well — as much as we enjoyed discovering them ourselves.
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No. 10: Heavenly Creatures
An ethereal wine bar with restaurant ambitions
When I think of Heavenly Creatures, I think less of the dark walnut shelves lined with hard-to-find wines, and more of the clean bar topped with fresh-cut bulbs and thick candles gathering wax that I first visited in spring. That day, the new Northeast Broadway wine bar could have doubled for a Hollywood version of Heaven itself. If this happened to be your last meal, the young yellowtail toast wouldn’t be a bad start, its slabs of tender fish draped over smoky tonnato brightened with pickled onions and mustard seeds. Created by Aaron Barnett (St. Jack) as a riff on the lox bagels Heavenly Creatures owner Joel Gunderson used to bring him on Northwest 23rd Avenue, it’s the dish I’ve ordered more than any other this year. Now executed by chef Matt Mayer, the menu’s other must-order is the potato chips with their pool of viscous, meniscus-defying whipped camembert. Elsewhere, you’ll find things you’re happy you ordered once (celery root in a cool bagna cauda) and others you look forward to seeing again (grilled lamb ribs escabeche with apricot). There’s no obligation to build a full meal. Despite its ambitions, this remains a wine bar at heart, and nearly every glass I’ve tried has been special in some way.
What to know: Through the Coopers Hall brand, Heavenly Creatures owner Joel Gunderson and his team also manage the large space in back once home to Spanish restaurant Chesa.
What to eat: French olives, young yellowtail toast, potato chips and whipped camembert, whichever wine the deeply knowledgeable staff recommends that night.
Details: Heavenly Creatures is open for dinner Monday-Saturday (with a small plates menu available on Friday-Saturday afternoons) at 2218 N.E. Broadway, heavenlycreaturespdx.com.
No. 9: Magna Kubo
A street-food lechonería heads indoors, with desserts to match
To take the full measure of Magna Kubo, a spin-off to our 2021 Restaurant of the Year, Magna Kusina, you had to be there for Beaverton Restaurant Week. (Seriously.) Near the end of September, this latest restaurant from Carlo Lamagna, with a kitchen run by chef Kevin Balonso, rolled out a fully loaded “mini Kamayan” tray inspired by the utensil-free — and decidedly not mini — Filipino feasts of the same name. It wasn’t just a chance to marvel at the restaurant’s crispy lumpia, crackling lechon, good roast chicken and fried wings, its tender beefsteak, cubed pork belly, fluffy garlic rice, stir-fried noodles or (whew!) the creamy, coconut milk-braised greens. It was a new framing for Filipino street food, one seemingly inspired both by the fresh-from-the-airport roast pork Lamagna has bought from roadside lechon stands on trips to Manila, and the meat-loaded pitmaster trays folks line up for at barbecue restaurants in Austin. The mini Kamayan vanished at the end of the promotion, meaning you once again have to buy your meat by the pound, with set meals accompanied by rice, pickles and sauce. The good news? If you can manage not to over-order, you can (and should) try the stunning halo-halo with shaved ice, leche flan and ube ice cream from rising star pastry chef Alexandria “Allie G” Guevarra.
What to know: Restaurants are booming in Central Beaverton. Southwest Broadway Street alone can now claim the just-opened Don’s Favorite Foods, Hapa Pizza and Pip’s Original Doughnuts, not to mention the many Portland restaurants (Afuri, Breakside, Top Burmese) on the other side of Farmington Road.
What to eat: Lumpia, roast pork belly, shrimp pancit, halo-halo (or an ube, macadamia nut and white chocolate cookie from the sweets counter).
Magna Kubo serves lunch and dinner Thursday-Sunday at 12406 S.W. Broadway St., Beaverton; 971-268-5990; magnakubo.com.
Steak frites and Santa pants mugs, only at Plumb, a "bistro" residency at Deadshot.Michael Russell | The Oregonian
No. 8: Plumb
A surprise bistro residency inside a temporary Christmas cocktail bar
How many places in America — heck, in the world? — offer the opportunity to eat a truly great steak frites while sipping on a mix of rums, ube-coconut orgeat and acid-adjusted pineapple juice from a ceramic Santa mug? Such is the case this month at Plumb, perhaps the biggest surprise in a year defined as much by “residencies” (extended pop-ups, essentially) as proper restaurants. For the time being, the French-leaning bistro is found inside the innovative cocktail bar Deadshot, which is currently hosting the annual Miracle pop-up, making this a pop-up within a pop-up (and explaining the Santa mug). Drop by to find chef Alex Trombadore and his team serving straightforward bistro dishes with a few global flourishes, a little tahini here, some labneh there. The technique is impressive, especially the saucing — my first ever bite here was some perfectly grilled cabbage and apple enveloped in note-perfect bechamel blended, Icelandic-style, with caramelized whey. “Wow,” I said, almost involuntarily. “That’s good.” Yet even if you don’t notice those chefly details, you can still enjoy the gorgeous crust on a NY strip and the golden fry on a bushel of McDonald’s-esque fries. Served drizzled with sauce vert with more sauce for dipping, it’s the best steak frites this side of St. Jack.
What to know: A good bistro needs a good burger, and Plumb has one, thick with melted gruyere and dill pickles, a half-pound remedy for anyone sick of the smash burger craze. But with the pop-up madness in full swing, the burger is off the menu until January.
What to eat: Should it return, the grilled cabbage with apples in bechamel is a must. Otherwise, try the aji crudo, the beets and pears in tahini, the steak frites and the decadent bread pudding with its chocolate ganache and orange crème anglaise.
Plumb serves dinner Monday-Saturday inside Deadshot at 2133 S.E. 11th Ave., 503-875-0527, plumbrestaurantpdx.com.
No. 7: No Saint
Can a city have too much good pizza? Not a chance
Visit most mid-sized cities in America, and you’ll find at least one buzzy restaurant with good pizza and wine, places designed less for Friday-night takeout than a proper night on the town (with prices to match). That Portland has several such restaurants could explain why No Saint has flown a little under the radar. But the former pop-up from Gabriella Casabianca and Anthony Siccardi is worth knowing about, even in this pizza-mad town. There’s a rusticity here that lets you know the restaurant is real: A salad of rough-chopped radishes and apples served on mismatched vintage plates (good); thick-cut garlic retaining a punch of rawness under a plain pizza’s mozzarella (hmm). Among the pies, my favorite so far has been the gooey-good riff on pasta alla Gricia, which leans fully into its cheesy, peppery excess, squishy guanciale and all; one week later, it came with broccolini, meaning it qualified as healthy. But the plain cheese, the Hawaiian-ish pepperoni and pineapple quince and seasonal specials such as the fully loaded sausage and pear with goat gouda all have arguments in their favor. This isn’t a sourdough spot, but the dough is plenty delicious. There won’t be many end crusts left behind.
What to know: The restaurant’s unusual layout, with its horsehoe prep area and hulking copper-sided oven, are remnants of its previous tenants, Seastar Bakery and Handsome Pizza, which closed in 2022.
What to eat: Spicy Caesar and radish-pear salads, pepperoni supreme or alla gricia pizzas, the brutti ma buoni (“ugly but good”) — and, better yet, best-in-town — tiramisu. And keep your eyes peeled for baked pastas, especially the shallow tray of rigatoncini doused in a pleasantly light vodka sauce, any missing cream more than replaced by a big dollop of wobbly burrata.
No Saint is open for dinner Thursday-Sunday at 1603 N.E. Killingsworth St., 503-206-8321, nosaintpdx.com.
No. 6: Astral
Serve serious food, when you can, only with friends
Forced to pick one dining experience that defined 2023, you might pick Astral, the Mexican-inspired pop-up turned residency at DIY nano brewery Duality. That’s not just because the cooking is serious, though it certainly is, a thought that might have struck you from the first bite of pork belly chicharron. It’s because owners John Boisse and Lauren Breneman are running Astral on their own terms, partnering with friends (including brewer Mike Lockwood and his creative partner, Alyssa Compte) and opening — at most — 14 hours a week, with occasional days off for family emergencies or mental health. That can be frustrating, especially if you’ve shown up to find Duality’s doors locked. But the price — basically checking Instagram to make sure they’re open — is a small one to pay for food this interesting and this good. Like an east-side analog to Lilia, one of our best new restaurants of 2022, Astral’s menu has touched on snap pea esquites in summer and delicate masa creations including huaraches and tlacoyos. A recent crudo with elegant layers of raw scallop and pear sprinkled with toasty hazelnut in a leche-pale broth dotted with yuzu kosho would have been impressive even if it wasn’t prepared in a brewery alcove.
What to know: Breneman’s brown butter chocolate chip cookies are as good as the great ones at Coquine and Cloudforest.
What to eat: The menu changes often enough that individual recommendations aren’t extremely useful, but I do look forward to the next time I see those chicharrones, more like beautiful golden pork belly bites with the skin attached than pork rinds. Served simply with lime and Valentina hot sauce and paired with one of Lockwood’s sui generis beers, they’re a transcendent bar snack that borders on a full-on mood.
Astral serves dinner Friday-Saturday (with early afternoon service Saturday) and brunch Sunday at 715 N.E. Lawrence Ave., astralpdx.com.
No. 5: Yaowarat
Is there a formula behind this Chinese-Thai restaurant? Yeah, Formula 1
It’s not fair to say that Akkapong “Earl” Ninsom, the Bangkok-born chef-owner behind the likes of Langbaan, Hat Yai and Eem, has been on a cold streak. But after relocating Langbaan to the west side, he has done a bit of house cleaning. Most notably, that meant closing Lazy Susan, a “family charcoal diner” unfortunately timed for spring 2020 in Montavilla’s former Country Cat space. Yaowarat, which filled that Stark Street vacuum in October, looks like one heck of a rebound. Named for the main thoroughfare through Bangkok’s Chinatown, the restaurant presents a collection of dishes inspired by a trip Ninsom recently took with industry heavyweights Sam Smith (Tusk), Eric Nelson (Eem) and Kyle Linden Webster (Expatriate), who are joined in the Yaowarat kitchen by Chinese-Thai food expert Kanokwan “Nok” Jinuntuya and longtime Hat Yai steward Taweesak “Tee” Teesompong. Among their finds: spicy “road squid” (just order it), dim sum-style chive cakes and juicy shrimp dumplings wrapped in deep fried tofu skin. Add some sultry mapo tofu and a bowl of kuay teow kua gai — a more down-to-clown version of the pork fat-fried noodles I loved at Sen Yai — and you have yourself a meal. It’s a little grimy. It’s very good. And it’s easy to imagine dishes like these being served on Yaowarat Road itself.
What to know: Now dressed up in Technicolor red, the old Country Cat bar is sure to put you in the mood for drinks. Go with a group, if only so you can order a beer tower filled with three liters (!) of frosty Singha.
What to eat: Chive cakes, dumplings, kuay teow kua gai, ma po tofu and toasted buns with pandan and Thai tea custards.
Yaowarat is open for dinner Wednesday-Sunday at 7937 S.E. Stark St., 971-420-8913, yaowaratpdx.com.
No. 4: L’Orange
Modern technique, Old Portland value (and 12 wines by the glass)
Jeff Vejr isn’t the first Portland restaurateur to promise a “good glass of wine and a meal at a reasonable price.” But he might be the first to land that plane since the pandemic. In a town where a date-night dinner now reaches $300 after wine and tip (and before babysitter), mains at L’Orange — wine-braised short rib, duck confit with black lentils, smoked sturgeon and root veg — average right around $26, and are engineered at a level most local restaurants could only dream of. Chef Joel Stocks, who spent time at Michelin-starred restaurants in Chicago and Europe, has assembled an impressive team here at this second-floor perch, and his southern Mediterranean menu is crafted with both modern technique — including a few casual nods to “The French Laundry” cookbook — and a dash of food-nerd fun. Seasonal salads and veggie dishes are worthy of your time, especially the downy soft Parisian gnocchi with roasted squash and mushrooms in a pistachio-ginger sauce, an unadulterated taste of fall. But do watch out for specials such as sausages or rolled pig’s head made using pork from Stocks’ cousins’ farm in Grants Pass. “We want to bring back that sense of value, that Old Portland feel,” Vejr told us back in June, name-checking Division Street’s old Bar Avignon. Mission accomplished.
What to know: Before teaming up with Vejr, Stocks and fellow Park Kitchen alum Will Preisch held court at Holdfast Dining, an intimate tasting room attached to Deadshot, the new home of Plumb, a restaurant residency that is also on our best new restaurants list this year. Note: Due to its second-floor location, L’Orange is not ADA accessible.
What to eat: The cheese “rose” shaved into frilly petals using a special device crank behind the bar, the smoked and roasted sturgeon, the juicy L’Orange cake with its cardamom icing and bruléed top.
L’Orange serves dinner Tuesday-Saturday at 2005 S.E. 11th Ave., 503-880-5682, lorangepdx.com.
No. 3: Xiao Ye
A dinner party with friends, all refinement and reserve
Before Louis Lin and Jolyn Chen opened this “first-generation American” restaurant, I could envision their eclectic approach to a menu of things they loved, including — but in no way limited to — dishes inspired by their Los Angeles upbringing and Taiwanese heritage. I figured the noodles would be good, given Lin’s time running Felix in Santa Monica, and that the service would be generous, as it was at Rose’s Luxury in Washington D.C., where the childhood friends worked together and fell in love. But I didn’t know the pair would be so adept at making miniatures. Xiao Ye’s menu-topping “little bites” section features dainty masa madeleines arranged in a pool of whipped butter like tiny standing stones, warm creamed collards in a baby ramekin for spooning onto adorably petite crostini, baby chicken hearts basted with butter and served in a pool of bagna cauda-like garlic oil you’ll want to hang on to for later. Xiao Ye might be the Mandarin phrase for “midnight snack,” but the food here bears little resemblance to the regrettable Domino’s order or Taco Bell run that I associate with the phrase. The all’amatriciana is a case in point, with rigatoni cooked just al dente, barely slicked with tomato sauce and tossed with scraps of good guanciale. It’s very good, if more austere than most pastas you’ve had in town. The warm room is a welcome surprise walking in off Sandy, almost like peering into an English farmhouse diorama at some museum. With its gingham curtains, mismatched chairs and yellow-blue accents picked out by Chen herself — and a low chef’s counter inspired by the one Rose’s Luxury — it might be Portland’s best designed restaurant of the year.
What to know: Before it was Xiao Ye, this handsome brick building near the wedge formed by Northeast Sandy and Cesar E. Chavez boulevards was a DIY dog grooming facility dubbed Beauty for the Beast. The sign still hangs out front.
What to eat: Mini madeleines, chicken hearts, both noodles, the half fried chicken with its rice, sweet potato and Japanese-style curry jus.
Xiao Ye is open for dinner Monday-Saturday at 3832 N.E. Sandy Blvd., 503-764-9478, xiaoyepdx.com.
No. 2: Jeju
Whole-animal Korean barbecue with a side of rockstar karaoke
A fog machine went off halfway through my first dinner at this new Korean barbecue restaurant from Han Oak’s Sun Young Park and Peter Cho, shooting steam through colored lights toward a relatively muted dining room. It felt like a mistake, or a test run. Then, just as suddenly: a dropdown screen, wireless microphones and karaoke. Specifically, The Pogues’ “Fairytale of New York” as performed by artist Carson Ellis and her husband, The Decemberists’ own Colin Meloy. A few diners paused between bites of lacy beef mandu and dry-aged kanpachi. Others reacted with polite indifference. After the show — and note, there might not always be a show; Jeju is nearly as ad hoc as Han Oak — it was time for the main event. The guiding principle here is whole animal butchery, meaning slabs of meat are broken down in the back, dry-aged in-house, seared in the hearth by chef Ben Klein and his team, then served with lettuce and herbs for making wraps with a dab of ssamjang. Each night’s ssam platter will have some steak, pork and perhaps blood sausage, but specific cuts change day-to-day or even hour-to-hour. One constant? Buttered rice crisped dolsot-style in Jeju’s wood-fired oven. “You don’t want to know how much butter is in there,” said Cho, as another brave singer stepped to the mic.
What to know: Jeju’s hearth, oven and soaring dining room were previously home to Italian restaurant Renata, whose frozen pizza line lives on at most local markets.
What to eat: Jeju has stuck with its $75 tasting menu so far, meaning meals progress from banchan to mandu in black vinegar to dry-aged kanpachi under a nest of daikon strings to the ssam set with its daily meats. My only advice? Save some space for that buttered rice and dessert, including pear-chocolate bingsu, the snow-fine Korean shaved ice.
Jeju is open for dinner Wednesday-Saturday at 626 S.E. Main St., 503-502-2038, jejupdx.com.
No. 1: Ki’ikibáa
Superlative Yucatecan fare marks the return of Portland legend Manny Lopez
From 2017 to 2022, Portland had more Manny Lopez sightings than D.B. Cooper and Bigfoot combined. Was that the former Bluehour sous chef back at Angel Food & Fun, the Northeast Portland restaurant his careful Yucatecan cookery put on the map? Was that his distinctive grill shining from the kitchen at a new East Portland restaurant? His menudo popping up in Milwaukie? That none of these tips panned out might be less interesting than the fact people sent them to me in the first place. But for fans of Angel’s panuchos, poc chuc and frijol con puerco who kept the candle burning, last winter brought great news — Manny was back at a new restaurant, Ki’ikibáa, opened with wife Suny Parra Castillo on Northeast 82nd Avenue. Also back? Many of the same dishes Lopez introduced to Portland nearly a decade ago, plus a few intriguing specials — Mayan blood sausage, anyone? — to reward repeat visits.Despite Portland’s surprisingly deep roster of carts and restaurants representing the Yucatán, none are executing on Ki’ikibáa’s level. The panuchos are the best in town, each gently crisp tortilla stuffed with black bean and topped with lettuce, pickled onion and a choice of meat, including cochinita pibil, the citrus-marinated pork. Ditto for the Christmas-toned pozoles (red and green), and the relleno negro, a pork loaf formed, Scotch egg-style, around a hard-boiled egg, and served with shredded turkey in a savory black broth made from charred chilies that takes Lopez around a week to prepare. Few dishes on the menu have equals in town, and that’s without even mentioning arguably Portland’s best burrito, with its seared carne asada and layer of gently crisped cheese. But I’d go a step further: After visiting a handful of recommended restaurants in San Francisco and Los Angeles, I’m thinking there’s a good chance Ki’ikibáa is the best place to eat Yucatecan food in America. And it the place we loved eating the most in 2023.
Before you visit: This isn’t Kann, our 2022 Restaurant of the Year, with its small regiment of staff and reservations booked out months in advance. Ki’ikibáa is a true mom-and-pop found on Northeast 82nd Avenue just across from the Bag O’Crab, near McDaniels High School. Even on quiet days, Lopez and his team take their time perfecting each dish. Have patience if you visit, especially over the new few weeks.
What to know: Ki’ikibáa sits a stone’s throw away from another very good Yucatecan restaurant, La Mestiza, which happens to be owned by a family from the same central Yucatecan town as Lopez and Parra Castillo. Same goes for a handful of local food carts. According to Lopez, many residents from that town, Maní, first moved to the Northwest to harvest apples in the Columbia River Gorge, before bringing a taste of their home to Portland.
What to eat: Salbutes, panuchos with cochinita pibil, pozole rojo or verde, relleno negro or blanco, carne asada burritos, tropical aguas frescas, any special.
Ki’ikibáa is open for lunch and dinner Tuesday-Sunday at 3244 N.E. 82nd Ave., 971-429-1452, @kiikibaapdx.
— Michael Russell
Further reading: Ki’ikibáa is Portland’s 2023 Restaurant of the Year
— Michael Russell; mrussell@oregonian.com
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